Hmm, it's been doing it for over a year I think. I bought a 500G drive a year ago, and noticed the problem. I bought the second 500G last summer, swapped it, and still had the problem. I bought another one this year, swapped it again and still had the problem.

It sounds like you may have a problem, other than the drive. We've used loads of 500GB Seagate drives, as well as many other manufacturer's and only have problems if the drive itself is defective. So, first you should run the manufacturer's diagnostics on the drive, just to be sure.

Another thing to try (after you do that) would be to replace the factory IDE cable with something that is better quality (practically any ATA/66 or ATA/133 cable will work fine).

Beyond that, it is likely that its a problem with the unit.

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Possibly dumb question -- the download is a 'self extracting zip file'. How can I get it as a .iso file?

I'm on a Mac (but Intel Macs can boot Linux CDs, which I didn't realize until recently -- I upgraded my S3 recently with one of the other CDs).. I tried renaming it to .zip but it then wouldn't recognize it.

My S1 actually will only have guide data for another month or so, but I thought I'd play with it.

Possibly dumb question -- the download is a 'self extracting zip file'. How can I get it as a .iso file?

I'm on a Mac (but Intel Macs can boot Linux CDs, which I didn't realize until recently -- I upgraded my S3 recently with one of the other CDs).. I tried renaming it to .zip but it then wouldn't recognize it.

My S1 actually will only have guide data for another month or so, but I thought I'd play with it.

It's actually not self-extracting; you have to unzip the file yourself.

I'm not a big Mac guy, but I'd expect that there are plenty of 'unzip' programs out there, and quite possibly you can just unzip the file from the shell (it runs unix, doesn't it?)

You'll then have an ISO which you can burn - no idea whether that CD will boot on your Mac, though...

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Read through this entire thread and didn't find answer to this: does the latest CD provide all the tools necessary to upgrade a Series 1 Tivo still running Version 1.xxxx of the software? Seems like a utility called TivoMad was once needed to do this (still referred to in Hinsdale and Weaknees) but is now no longer available.

The latest CDs (at least, from us) will work fine with your unit, regardless of the software version. The functionality of TiVoMad has been completely replaced by the newest mfstools, which is on the CD.

Read through this entire thread and didn't find answer to this: does the latest CD provide all the tools necessary to upgrade a Series 1 Tivo still running Version 1.xxxx of the software?

Yes, it should work fine. You might want to ensure your unit is updated to the latest version of the software (3.0) before performing the upgrade.

If you are going to use a drive that is larger than 137GB, also remember to use the CopyKern utility to replace the kernel so that it will recognize the additional space on the drive. Not certain that that kernel will work with the 1.0 software which is why I'd recommend you get your unit to 3.0 before doing that.

If you use a smaller drive (80GB), then you don't have to worry about any of that.

Lou

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Thanks to both for your quick response. Will I still have to issue an "edit_bootparms hdZ -i" command from mfstools, or is this functionality now automatic?

Thanks, again,

edit_bootprams is not part of MFStools

Why is it you are considering using it? What method of upgrading are you considering using? Is there a particular guide that you are using and if so, have you consulted the instructions associated with that particular guide?

There isn't any reason you shouldn't be able to use this particular CD as part of the upgrade process, but whether you use the edit_bootparms or not really depends on what you are trying to do.

Just as a reminder, TiVoMad, and its associated utils has not been commonly used since MFStools came out many many years ago.

Lou

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Why is it you are considering using it? What method of upgrading are you considering using? Is there a particular guide that you are using and if so, have you consulted the instructions associated with that particular guide?

Lou

I looked at instructions for upgrading from both Weaknees and the Hindsdale guide, both having relatively recent dates on their pages, and both still refer to using TivoMad for software earlier than 2.0 (I have no way of updating the Tivo software to a newer version than the installed 1.xxx). If these are hopelessly out of date can you suggest another guide that reflects procedures for the new MFStools based CD?

I looked at instructions for upgrading from both Weaknees and the Hindsdale guide, both having relatively recent dates on their pages, and both still refer to using TivoMad for software earlier than 2.0 (I have no way of updating the Tivo software to a newer version than the installed 1.xxx). If these are hopelessly out of date can you suggest another guide that reflects procedures for the new MFStools based CD?

Well, a daily call (using a phone line or a network connection) should get your unit to update to the latest version.

Can't speak to those guides as I've not read either of them (they were written long after we used those tools and moved onto later ones as the OSes were updated quite some time ago), but if MFStools cannot be used to make a backup of your existing drive, then you'd have to use those older tools with the older OS.

What I'd recommend (if you are not able to update to the latest OS) is simply attempting to use MFStools to backup your existing drive and then restore to a new one, and see if it works.

You may as well try using this CD, but you may have to go find an older one somewhere to find those older utilities; Google will likely turn something up...

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What I'd recommend (if you are not able to update to the latest OS) is simply attempting to use MFStools to backup your existing drive and then restore to a new one, and see if it works.

That's what I'll try, thanks. At what point do I do copykern, as the very last step? And does the copykern prompting allow me to specify what drives I want to copy it to, I don't want to replace the kernel on the original Tivo drive but leave it exactly as it is.

One other question about mfstools that might be of general interest - on most of my computers most likely to perfom the upgrade the windows drive is a RAID 0 array on a PCI card. What is, or how do I discover, the correct mfstools designation, e.g. hde, hdf etc, for that PCI located drive?

That's what I'll try, thanks. At what point do I do copykern, as the very last step? And does the copykern prompting allow me to specify what drives I want to copy it to, I don't want to replace the kernel on the original Tivo drive but leave it exactly as it is.

See this post for the full recommendation there; CopyKern must be done AFTER the restore, but again, I don't think that kernel will work with the older OS. So use a smaller drive or an older version of the CD (non-lba48).

Quote:

Originally Posted by milmo12

One other question about mfstools that might be of general interest - on most of my computers most likely to perfom the upgrade the windows drive is a RAID 0 array on a PCI card. What is, or how do I discover, the correct mfstools designation, e.g. hde, hdf etc, for that PCI located drive?

I don't think that is going to work; I don't know of any boot CDs (let alone this one) that will support the RAID device. Try to keep it simple and use an IDE channel.

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I've verified the Tivo drive is unlocked. During the mfsbackup stage of the process I get error messages "Inode xxxxx corrupt, trying backup" and "Inode xxxx backup corrupt, giving up" and "Unable to handle kernel paging request at yyyyy..." The Tivo drive came from a working Tivo that has never given a moment's trouble. It was at ver 1.xx of the software.

Trying use a direct copy to the new drive (dd if=/dev/hdc etc.) I get essentially the same messages.

I've verified the Tivo drive is unlocked. During the mfsbackup stage of the process I get error messages "Inode xxxxx corrupt, trying backup" and "Inode xxxx backup corrupt, giving up" and "Unable to handle kernel paging request at yyyyy..." The Tivo drive came from a working Tivo that has never given a moment's trouble. It was at ver 1.xx of the software.

Trying use a direct copy to the new drive (dd if=/dev/hdc etc.) I get essentially the same messages.

Any ideas?

Well, again, we recommend you let your unit update to the latest version of the software, however if you can't do a straight DD, then there is probably something else wrong.

You should verify that there is nothing wrong with the hard drive, itself by downloading and running the manufacturer's diagnostics.

If there is nothing wrong with the drive, perhaps its the boot CD and/or a compatibility problem with your PC.

That was it, thanks. Having read the warnings about doing this on Windows XP machines I dug out an old WinME box that had an AMD K6-2+ processor, slighly overclocked. The mfstools process didn't like either the 3 level cache architecture of the chip/MB or the slight overclocking of the FSB.

So I used an even older (Digital) not-overclocked PC frame without a hard drive with basic ATA/33 controller. The process completed successfully.

One more question: the basic mfstools CD has the option of turning byte swapping on or off (default = off). What is byte swapping and why would someone use it, it's not explained in any of the guides (weaknees or Hinsdale, or on the CD)? Is this what makes the new drive useable on older Tivos like my Series 1 and is it the replacement for the now defunct TivoMad?

That was it, thanks. Having read the warnings about doing this on Windows XP machines I dug out an old WinME box that had an AMD K6-2+ processor, slighly overclocked. The mfstools process didn't like either the 3 level cache architecture of the chip/MB or the slight overclocking of the FSB.

So I used an even older (Digital) not-overclocked PC frame without a hard drive with basic ATA/33 controller. The process completed successfully.

One more question: the basic mfstools CD has the option of turning byte swapping on or off (default = off). What is byte swapping and why would someone use it, it's not explained in any of the guides (weaknees or Hinsdale, or on the CD)? Is this what makes the new drive useable on older Tivos like my Series 1 and is it the replacement for the now defunct TivoMad?

Thanks again,

Byte-swapping has to do with how the information is ordered on the hard drive (big-endian vs little-endian). On Series1 units, the byte-order is different than on Series2 units, and the kernel, when booted from the CD, needs to know the byte-order in certain situations. The default is "no swap" because its faster for the kernel when making backups and doing restores (because it doesn't have to worry about the byte-order). But on Series1 units, swap must be turned on if you intend to mount and access file systems, so that the data on the filesystems can be read and understood.

So, to answer your question, "it depends..." - a noswap mode should work fine for both units, but if you are doing something like installing TurboNet or CacheCARD drivers on a Series1, then you need to use the swap mode.

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So, to answer your question, "it depends..." - a noswap mode should work fine for both units, but if you are doing something like installing TurboNet or CacheCARD drivers on a Series1, then you need to use the swap mode.

I tried the new drive that seemed to complete the mfstools process successfully (with byte swapping off) but it is stuck on the "Please wait..." screen. I did try the master/slave jumper in all positions.

Maybe I'm being too stubborn, but all the instructions I read for my unit, HRD212, on weaknees and hinsdale refer to using a utility called TivoMad (for software at 2.0 or before) to make the new drive useable on my system. Could someone please explain why that is no longer necesssary and how that functionality is supplanted or available in the latest mfstools bootCD? Is there some special command I need to use in addition to the mfsbackup/mfs restore commands?

I tried the new drive that seemed to complete the mfstools process successfully (with byte swapping off) but it is stuck on the "Please wait..." screen. I did try the master/slave jumper in all positions.

Maybe I'm being too stubborn, but all the instructions I read for my unit, HRD212, on weaknees and hinsdale refer to using a utility called TivoMad (for software at 2.0 or before) to make the new drive useable on my system. Could someone please explain why that is no longer necesssary and how that functionality is supplanted or available in the latest mfstools bootCD? Is there some special command I need to use in addition to the mfsbackup/mfs restore commands?

Thanks again,

The reason why TiVoMad is no longer necessary because at the time, there was no tool for expanding the partitions on a drive that already had the operating system on it. IE; you could add a drive using "BlessTiVo" however if you used dd to create a new drive by copying your original to a larger one, there was no way to expand the media partitions to use the additional space.

I do not recall using TiVoMad on standalone units, but I do recall using it on DirecTiVo boxes.

When MFStools came out, those tools were not required, and the software versions available for TiVo units were later than the ones you are currently running.

Consider letting your unit update to the latest version of the software (3.0) to at least eliminate that factor as a potential issue. Also consider following whatever guide you are using, to the letter, if you have an expectation of it working. As I said before, I've never paid much attention to the guides because we established our best practices for upgrading units long before either were ever written.

Lou

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Consider letting your unit update to the latest version of the software (3.0) to at least eliminate that factor as a potential issue. Also consider following whatever guide you are using, to the letter, if you have an expectation of it working.
Lou

I have no way of letting it update: I don't have a landline and this box doesn't have a network port. I also don't have a subscription. I've followed both guide's instructions to the letter except for the TivoMad instruction. If a subscription isn't necessary for an update is there a way to use a cell?

I have no way of letting it update: I don't have a landline and this box doesn't have a network port. I also don't have a subscription. I've followed both guide's instructions to the letter except for the TivoMad instruction. If a subscription isn't necessary for an update is there a way to use a cell?

Not that I know of.

OK, so here are my final words of advice on this particular issue; there's really not much I an offer because your setup is just completely non-standard.

1) subscribe to TiVo's service - your box was built with that in mind, and we are supporters of TiVo, so it will always be my recommendation
2) let your unit update; if you don't have a phone line, plug in a TurboNet card and you can update it over your network
3) if none of the above, get your hands on TiVoMad and follow whatever those older instructions actually say to do.

In case 1) or 2), you'll be able to use this CD to do your upgrade. But in 3), you'll probably end up needing a different one...

Lou

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Thanks to everyone, particularly Tivouprade, who helped me through the ordeal of adding a larger drive on a Series 1 TIVO still running a version of the software at 2.0 or below. I got it working, and the Hinsdale and Weaknees guides are correct for this configuration, you do need the Edit_bootparms utility from the now defunct TivoMAD software to make it work. It can be found on the bootCD called nuboot6.iso still available, as of now, at http://www.cnunix.com/ftp/TiVo/, in the MAD32 directory. It needed to be copied to a floppy, then mounted and run as the very last step.

For those very few who may want to do an upgrade to an old Tivo with old software (the kind that can be used as a recorder without a subscription) here are a few tips:

Use mfstools 2.0 for the basic copying

Don't use a computer with any flavor of AMD K6-xxx processor (not wanting to disrupt the main computers in the house I pulled a couple oldies out of storage, big mistake)

Turnoff any overclocking on your machine

To use the edit_bootparms utility boot the new Tivo drive in byte-swapped mode (but that's not necessary for the basic copy operation)

I was able to save all my stored programs and now have 46 hours of recording available on highest quality (up from 6!). Once I recover from this experience I may try use the LBA48 kernel to see if I can get the full 160GB out of my drive, but I expect that recovery to take quite some time.

Thanks to everyone, particularly Tivouprade, who helped me through the ordeal of adding a larger drive on a Series 1 TIVO still running a version of the software at 2.0 or below. I got it working, and the Hinsdale and Weaknees guides are correct for this configuration, you do need the Edit_bootparms utility from the now defunct TivoMAD software to make it work. It can be found on the bootCD called nuboot6.iso still available, as of now, at http://www.cnunix.com/ftp/TiVo/, in the MAD32 directory. It needed to be copied to a floppy, then mounted and run as the very last step.

For those very few who may want to do an upgrade to an old Tivo with old software (the kind that can be used as a recorder without a subscription) here are a few tips:

Use mfstools 2.0 for the basic copying

Don't use a computer with any flavor of AMD K6-xxx processor (not wanting to disrupt the main computers in the house I pulled a couple oldies out of storage, big mistake)

Turnoff any overclocking on your machine

To use the edit_bootparms utility boot the new Tivo drive in byte-swapped mode (but that's not necessary for the basic copy operation)

I was able to save all my stored programs and now have 46 hours of recording available on highest quality (up from 6!). Once I recover from this experience I may try use the LBA48 kernel to see if I can get the full 160GB out of my drive, but I expect that recovery to take quite some time.

You are "hardcore" to say the least! Glad you got it working.

Be careful with that lba48 kernel; I'm not certain, but I don't think it will work with that older version of the software. You can read up a bit more about here, as this is the guy who created it...

Lou

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I was able to save all my stored programs and now have 46 hours of recording available on highest quality (up from 6!). Once I recover from this experience I may try use the LBA48 kernel to see if I can get the full 160GB out of my drive, but I expect that recovery to take quite some time.

After a month of R&R following the rigors of upgrading a Series 1 with 1.3 software (e.g., finding long forgotten software utilities, teaching myself basic linux commands, trying 4 different mfstools versions, etc.) I had recovered enough to try using the LBA48 kernel on a new drive with the that old 1.3 software. It worked! My new 160GB disk is now fully utilized and has a 55 hour capacity at Best Quality.

Thanks to feedback and contributions from many TCF members, we've updated our popular LBA48 CD (now at version 4.04) to reflect the current state of DIY upgrading for Series1 and Series2 TiVo DVR units. It will also work fine with a Series3 unit as long as you are using and IDE-SATA adapter because this CD does not contain native SATA support.

This CD is designed to replace most of the out-of-date and flaky CD's (Kazmyr's, Dylan's, etc.) that have been floating around for about EIGHT years now. It is also incorporated into our Universal Boot CD (version 11), but we have separated it here to keep the file size small, and the download free.

It is assumed you have a basic working knowledge of MFStools (or are using a decent how-to with detailed instructions) and are also aware that many bootdisks, utilities, and most importantly, the TiVo kernel for Series1 systems, and early Series2 software releases are limited to accessing only 137GB of each individual drive.

This CD uses an LBA48 Linux kernel which is designed for use with all hard disk drives, including drives that are larger than 137GB. This CD may be used to perform standard MFStools backup and restore operations for ALL make/model TiVo systems which are upgradeable. HOWEVER, do not use this CD to restore a backup onto a drive LARGER than 137GB unless it will be used in a TiVo system whose kernel uses a comparable native LBA48 kernel or you are using tools and techniques to augment your upgrade with a user-supplied LBA48 kernel.

Units with a native LBA48 kernel are now:

All Series2 and Series3 Models running version 6.X or later of the TiVo OS

If you are intending to use larger than 137GB drives in a Series1 standalone or Series1 DirecTiVo system, you can simply use the "copykern" utility (provided on the CD) to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support. Just type "copykern" and follow the prompted instructions.

Note: 11/18/08 The current version of this CD (4.04) conatins updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5d) on all Series1 models.

Note: 9/11/07 The current version of this CD (4.04) contains updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5c) on all Series1 models.

Note: 7/22/07 The current version of this CD (4.04) contains updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5b) on all Series1 models.

Note: 5/12/06 New Release of the LBA48 CD (ver 4.04) includes a revised copykern and a recompiled kernel (labeled 3.10+) in the s1_kernels directory. We have done preliminary testing with this kernel in conjunction with version 3.5 of the Series1 DirecTV TiVo release and early tests are encouraging. If you have built LBA48 drives which are spuriously rebooting, or contain content that is not accessible through the "Now Playing" list, we encourage you to use copykern to transplant this newly updated kernel. Also note that you will need to use killinitrd to zap the new initrd (or use nic_config in the silicondust network driver release to achieve the same result).

If you are not using drives greater than 137GB, you may use this CD for any model TiVo without worry, with one exception: Do not attempt to use BlessTiVo on drives being added to a Series1 unit; instead, use mfsadd.

Use this CD for performing standard upgrades to units which support disk drives greater than 137GB or use this CD if you are performing an upgrade to any Series1 unit and use copykern to update to an LBA48 kernel (after you have restored your MFS backup image to your new drive.

You can use this CD for ANY Series1 TiVo unit if you are not planning on using a drive greater than 137GB. You can use this CD to bless add-on drives for Series2 units, or use mfsadd to combine two drives for any upgradable Series2 or a Series1.

One last note, MFStool 2.0 (included on this CD as well) has a bug and will not properly initialize a swap partition greater than 127MB. If you are building a SERIES1 replacement drive, and are planning on using "copykern" you can use the -s option (hit F3 for MFStool usage examples) to define a larger than 127MB swap partition, and copykern will initialize it for you when replacing the kernel.

That's it; please consult standard upgrade instructions (hinsdale or weaknees for example); as this CD is designed to be compatible with their guides.

This is a lie....The CD is not free. Man i have to spend more money on this machine to make it work!